Alistair Overeem: “I’m going to rip Brock Lesnar apart…”

Alistair Overeem is considered to be one of the best heavyweights in the world. A champion in K-1 and the former Strikeforce heavyweight title-holder, Overeem finally makes his UFC debut this December when he battles former UFC heavyweight king Brock Lesnar in a fight to determine the next contender for the belt currently held by Junior dos Santos.

In his latest blog for YahooSports, Overeem discussed his move to Xtreme Couture, his plans for 2011, and of course his upcoming bout against Lesnar.

Not only will “The Demolition Man” be stepping into the octagon for the first time in his career on December 30, but he’ll be doing it under the guidance of a new camp. After spending the majority of his career in Holland with Golden Glory, Overeem moved to Vegas earlier this year to train with Xtreme Couture.

“This is the first time I have not trained in Holland or Japan for years, but the vibe is perfect at Xtreme Couture. It helped that I already knew some of the guys there like Ray Sefo and Maurice Jackson, but I just feel very welcome there and they have all the facilities – two cages, a ring, lots of bags – everything I need to get ready for Lesnar. I am ready to put in the work,” said Overeem.

A bout against the former UFC champion wasn’t something Overeem had to take. According to him, he was offered a title shot against the winner of Dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez, but decided against it, saying, “I don’t want to sit on the sidelines, I want to fight.I think I have earned a UFC world title fight, by winning every major title outside the UFC, but I am here to prove that I am – without question – the best heavyweight on the planet. You don’t do that sitting on the sidelines or working out in the gym, you do that by fighting and beating the best available opposition in the biggest fights that can be made.”

Even though he has 40 more professional than his opponent, Overeem doesn’t underestimate Lesnar. “Winning UFC belt from Randy Couture in his fourth pro MMA fight and defending it against Frank Mir and Shane Carwin was very impressive. I am also impressed by Lesnar’s fighting spirit; he has twice come back from a very serious illness and fought very tough opposition right away. He obviously has a lot of confidence in himself in fighting me after more than a year out and surgery on his stomach, and I admire that about him, but I am even more confident in myself.”

Against Lesnar, Overeem will not only be battling a man that is his equal in size, but he’ll be up against a collegiate wrestling champion for the first time in his career. That doesn’t seem to concern the Dutch striker, who said, “He is great at takedowns and controlling people on the ground, but I can stop his takedowns and he is no match for me on the feet. I am going to rip Brock Lesnar apart, piece by piece.”

If it’s Overeem, he stops Lesnar’s takedown attempts and batters him on the feet. If it’s Lesnar, he works Overeem on the ground and potentially gets a TKO finish.

I gotta pick Overeem in this one. I’m not counting Lesnar out by any means, I just see Overeem giving him problems in the clinch and on the feet. Then again, a lot of these world-renowned fighters tend to flop when they reach the big league, so we’ll see.

I don’t think Reem is in any position to say he’s ripping any UFC top 5 HW into pieces… Get a big win under your belt then talk like that but after the werdum fight he needs to redeem himself a bit…
I got brock winning in 2rds

IF Brock can overcome his desire to turtle up when he gets hit, I think he can win this. But that’s a big “if” cause every time he shoots he’s gonna eat a knee or uppercut. The question is, can he power through it to get the takedown. If he can’t, Reem is gonna take this and then get demolished by JDS.

Niv
” I think that stylistically this could be the wrong match-up for JDS”
Lol that was said of Gonzaga, Nelson, Carwin, and Velasquez. Lol I don’t think there is a bad match-up for Junior. He is like a Chuck Liddell. Good takedown defense, so he don’t go down, and excellent striking.

His K1 championship came via beating a GG teamate in the semifinals who was fighting injured and Reem attacked those injured areas further… not really a high point in ones career if you ask me.

His Dream Belt came via KO’n Todd Duffee… safe to say not the highest achievment against a lower tier fighter.

His SF Belt came via Paul Buenatello and he defended it against Bret Rogers (another big milestone?!?) and then went to a decision against Werdum, he finally fights a decent fighter and this “k-1 level striker” goes to decision and was slightly out shined on his feet against him…

-Reem won the K-1 championship as a mixed martial artist. The only things that really come close to that for a guy who fights MMA is Rampage KOing Abidi then winning a decision again in the rematch. Sure he fought a severly beat up Saki, but its not his fault the K-1 judges fucked up the initial three round decision Gohkan had against Ghita. Overeem beat who was put in front of him, and he’s done well against pretty much every K-1 fighter put in front of him in the last couple years.

-Rogers was coming off a close loss to Fedor, and was ranked pretty much everywhere in the top ten at the time. He’s no longer that fighter, and part of that reason is the way he was manhandled by Reem. He was never that great, but he was a somewhat force when he was still filled with confidence.

-Fabricio Werdum was a top 5 fighter when Reem faced him, and he fought a chicken shit fight. He attempted over15 takedowns and was successful on almost none (he also spent a majority of the later rounds but scooting, and straight laying on the ground). Fabricio started to win some of the exchanges strictly because Overeem was so preoccupied with stuffing takedowns, and Overeem still should be considered a big winner in the striking because he would have been credited with multiple knockdowns if it was a K-1 match (not to mention dumps if was a muay thai rules fight).

-His dream belt means nothing, and frankly so did the SF trinket. However, he has wins over guys when they were highly ranked (Werdum is still almost universally set as a top 10 fighter), and hasn’t lost in 4 years (when he wasn’t as big as he is today).

Brock has plenty to worry about heading into this fight, and his only real avenue to victory is weathering an early storm.

Fabricio Werdum… legit opponent… no complaints except for the fact he should have finished him.
Todd Duffee… hmmm not so much
Brett Rogers… at the time he was over rated but c’mon this guy is bottom of the barrel in skillset
Kazuyuki Fujita…Veteran… good win… but this guy was past his glory days at the time.
James Thompson…. Do I have to say anything?

Reem has much left to prove in my opinion… it’s gonna be a great fight.

Lesnar has to throw caution to the winds and immediately shoot for the take down. If he plays around on the outside trying to strike with Overeem, he’ll get picked apart. Maybe Overeem is overrated (and maybe he’s not, I’m just saying), but his striking is still head and shoulders above Lesnar’s.

Lesnar is a strong fighter with good take downs and wrestling. Thats it. His striking and stand up is horrible. He cant take a hit, he panics, he tries to run and hide and he turtles up on the ground. Having said that I think he can win this fight. Will he? No I dont think so.
Overeem is a very good striker, one of the best in MMA and arguably the best in HW MMA. He also is a euopean grappling champion. I think Lesnar will find it very difficult to take overeem down and control him. I actually think Lesnars best chance of winning this is on the feet with a heavy shot. I cant see Lesnar being able to take Overeem down as easy as people think. Overeem is a more decorated grappler than Mir.
Overeem via TKO rd 1.
Now to those hinting that Werdum was winning the striking and therefore Overeems striking os beyter. To which I say remember Couture winning the striking against Lidell or Sonnen winning the stand up against Silva? It is not that easy and that is why I think Lesnars best chance against Overeem is a strike. Have Overeem thinking take down and POW!
To those saying Overeem hasnt impressed them in K1 I say WTF?! He beat Spong, Aerts twice and Hari to name a few. He has done in K1 what would be equivilant to beating Mir twice, Carwin, Kongo and Big Nog in MMA on his way to becoming the champ.
I am very pleased to see Overeem in the UFC and think he will make a few waves and could become champ.

Reem better have worked on his quite a bit by the time fight night arrives, because if he doesnt KO Lesnar inside 4 min he will prolly gas then lose just like Carwin.. If he comes in with at least decent cardio.. Lesnar is screwed. Reem makes a 25 yr old Arnold Schwarzenegger look tiny, Has very underrated sub skills, and is a much better striker than Lesnar. I think Reem dominates him everywhere for as long as his cardio holds up.